Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card Review

Hey everyone, thanks for joining me for this week’s review! Today, I’m going to bring it back to Canadian credit cards with the Scotiabank Gold American Express credit card. This one has gained a bit of buzz lately in the blogosphere. So, I figured I’d review it to see what it was all about. As always, this is going to be a nothing held back review! You’re about to learn the good, bad and ugly for the Scotiabank Gold American Express travel rewards credit card!

Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card Short Review

Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card Pros – If you’re looking for a credit card with a decent size spending limit, you’ve found it here. The maximum spending limit for this card is $5,000! Also, it has a pretty low annual fee, weighing in at only $99. However, the biggest perks associated with this credit card is the rewards. You can earn up to 4 Scotia Rewards points on qualifying purchases (I’ll go over what that means in the long review below), and 1 point for every standard purchase. You’re able to redeem the rewards for travel purchases, gift cards and more. It really is a great rewards program.

Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card Cons – The interest rate is a bit high, but that’s to be expected when it comes to any rewards credit card. However, this isn’t the highest interest rate out there for sure, and there are ways to avoid the interest when using rewards credit cards. I’ll explain the best way in my long review.

Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card Overall – Overall, this is a great credit card. The lender behind it is a trusted one, it comes with great rewards, a great spending limit, and an annual fee that’s lower than most of the competition. The only draw back is the interest rate. However, when it comes to rewards credit cards, we come to expect higher than average interest.

Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card Long Review

OK, now it’s time to dig deep into the details. Because the most important factor of a credit card for most people is cost, that’s where I’ll start. First off, the Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card comes with a $99 annual fee. In line with it’s competition in the travel rewards credit card industry, this one definitely stands out as one of the lower fee options. At least when it comes to the annual fee. The interest rate on the other hand, well, it kind of blends in with the rest.

The standard interest rate on this card is 19.99%. It’s not incredibly high, however, it’s not the lowest either. I’d call it average. However, if you own credit cards, you know that standard interest rates aren’t the only interest rates you should be concerned with. Cash advance and balance transfer interest rates may come into play depending on how you decide to use your new card. That being said, on the Scotiabank Gold American Express card, these rates are both 21.99%.

I promised that I would explain to you how you can avoid interest entirely, and here it is. It’s simple, pay your balances off as soon as you create them. Interest only can be charged to you if you carry a balance past the grace period. If you pay your credit card balance off every time you get paid, chances are, you’ll fall well within that grace period and never pay a dime in interest on your debts.

Now, let’s talk a bit about rewards. After all, if it wasn’t for the incredible rewards it offers, chances are, you wouldn’t be interested in this card. The Scotiabank Gold American Express card rewards operate on Scotia Rewards points. They work just like any other rewards program. Spend money, earn rewards! However, it’s how quickly you can accumulate these points and how much you can redeem them for that makes this rewards program so valuable.

With the Scotiabank Gold American Express Credit Card, you can earn up to 4 Scotia Rewards points for entertainment, gas, grocery store, and dining purchases. That covers most of what we all buy on a regular basis! So, on the vast majority of your purchases, you could be earning 4 Scotia Rewards points. Of course, outside of these categories, you’ll still earn Scotia Rewards points. As a matter of fact, you’ll get 1 for every dollar spent!

Once you’ve accumulated enough points, it’s time to redeem them, but what can you redeem them for? This is a travel rewards program. That being said, you can redeem your points for qualifying travel based purchases, like airfare. You also have the option to redeem the points for gift cards and other miscellaneous rewards.

Finally, let’s talk about the bank itself. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how good the perks are printed out to be if the company is known for not fulfilling it’s promises. That being said, Scotiabank is one of the leading lenders in Canada. They’ve made a name for themselves as having some of the best customer support surrounding their very secure products. When it comes down to it, there are few to no lenders that are better than Scotiabank.

Should You Apply For The Scotiabank American Express Card?

Well, that all depends on you. What are you looking for from your credit card? Are you financially responsible enough to pay your bill completely off every time you get paid? How often do you travel? The bottom line is, if you want a credit card with a good spending limit and great travel rewards, you’ve found it! However, with great perks come great costs if you’re not careful. That being said, the Scotiabank American Express Card card is reserved for financially sound individuals.

Joshua Rodriguez is the owner and founder of CNA Finance. He is also a partner here at Modest Money. His analysis has been featured on Investing.com, Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, Google News, and many others. To connect with Joshua, follow him on Twitter @CNAFinance.

Definitely going to give this one a pass, for two reasons. One… most places around here don’t accept American Express. Two… as much as I would love to say I could pay the balance off each time, I know I wouldn’t be able to, and that rate is too high to carry a balance on.

The main strength of this card is its high earning ability at restaurants which very few other cards give bonuses to. I don’t see any mention of the 15,000 point reward bonus, which is worth about $150 towards travel.

For this card to be worth holding, you would have to spend $4800 over the course of the year, or $330 / month in total in the “entertainment, gas, grocery store, and dining purchases” categories after the initial year which the signup bonus would cover, to offset the annual fee of $99. The earning rate for this card is about %2.5 back on purchases. Each point is worth about $0.01 on travel with a minimum redemption of 5,000 pts ($50).

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Joshua Rodriguez is the owner and founder of CNA Finance.
He is also a partner here at Modest Money. His analysis has been featured on Investing.com, Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, Google News, and many others.